Pickles
by Dances With Monkeys
Summary: Pepper has an unusual craving while Tony is away. Established Pepperony, post IM2 but no spoilers. T because I'm paranoid.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Iron Man and I wasn't the one who invented pickles. **

**AN: So here's a fun little one-shot in the Iron Man Universe. It's post IM2 and Pepper and Tony have an established relationship. It should be obvious what is going to happen, but I won't give anything away here in the AN. I may do a follow up one-shot or I may not. Also it may be AUish on Tony's part... I will explain at the end.**

**Enjoy **

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Pickles.

As Pepper Potts lies alone in their bed, she cannot shake the feeling that she would love a crunchy pickle. She turns on her side and faces Tony's side of the bed with a grimace. He had started taking on missions for SHIELD and was spending more and more time away from home.

She flops back onto her back and shuts her eyes and begins to count fluffy sheep behind her eyelids. A tactic she used to resort to as a young child, when she was especially restless for something the following day. A trip to the zoo or Disney World, but it never really worked. She would always get to one hundred and then get distracted with thoughts and excitement of her adventure to come.

It is now as she reaches the ninetieth sheep that she realizes that some things never change as her thoughts drifts to Tony, who she can only hope is okay. Anything can happen when he's off on a mission for his 'boss' Nick Fury, a man that she can just tell she will never grow fond of.

She pushes away the anxiousness that comes with thinking of everything that revolves around the man who should be filling the spot next to her. The man whose slight snore is the last thing she hears before she drifts to sleep, though when told he snores Tony Stark would never admit it.

_He should be back by now,_ she thinks anxiously.

Pepper sits up in bed and looks at the floor-to-ceiling wall and notices her reflection in the mirror. Her eyes darkened with circles and her red hair sticking every which way in its own sort of chaos. Being the orderly person that she is she thumbs through her hair trying to get the ginger strands to flatten and as she does her mind drifts once more to pickles.

She swings her feet over the bed and slips on her slippers and grabs her robe off of the foot of the bed, before the exhausted Pepper moves toward the door to head toward the kitchen. Deciding that there should be pickles in the refrigerator, in fact she is positive that they are there.

Pepper's thoughts are cloudy as she becomes more and more tired as she pads down the stairs. Of course she feels her exhaustion _after _she is out of bed, but that is not her main concern at the moment. She regrets not getting any sleep the night before, which she completely blames Tony because of reasons that involve his well practiced distraction techniques.

It may be the exhaustion or it may just be that the memory slipped away due to it not being important, but Pepper Potts swears that she hates pickles…Or at least has never really had a taste for them. She glances at the clock on the coffee high tech coffee pot that reads 3:45pm and comes to the conclusion that she cannot trust her memory when she has went this long without sleep.

She must like pickles or else she wouldn't want them, right?

She opens the stainless steel refrigerator door and looks for a jar of pickles, which she quickly finds to her relief. Maybe she can eat a pickle or two and attempt to get some sleep and maybe if she eats some pickles Tony will be home by the time she returns to the bedroom.

Unlikely, but she still holds out hope.

She plops herself in one of the breakfast bar stools and loosens the jar quickly. She plucks out a pickle and takes a crunchy bite of the green juicy pickle. She is almost positive that nothing has ever tasted this good to her.

As she enjoys her pickles, she can hear the familiar whir of Tony returning from his mission and she sighs with relief.

"Miss Potts, Mister Stark is arriving home from his mission." The familiar voice of the AI breaks the long silence, which has filled the house for quite a few long hours.

"I heard, thank you Jarvis." She replies as she pulls out another pickle which she eats slowly, enjoying it. She stares at the pickle intently, and wonders why she doesn't eat these more often.

"I guess I have always liked pickles." She mumbles to herself reflecting on her fuzzy memory of whether or not she liked the preserved vegetable.

After a few more long moments she can hear Tony as he jogs up the stairs. She smiles with relief when she can finally see his face.

He smiles crookedly, "Hey Pep." He places a chaste kiss on her lips.

"Hey," She whispers and then frowns at his back as he moves to grab a bottle of water. "You're late."

"I know, I know," He sighs as he shuts the refrigerator. "I'm sorry it was worse than SHIELD originally thought and I had to take a detour to the headquarters on the way home. I tried to be quick."

He leans against the bar and raises an eyebrow at the jar in front of her.

"Why are you eating pickles?"

Her eyebrows scrunch as she takes another bite with a loud crunch, "Because I have been craving pickles all night."

The puzzled look doesn't leave his face, "But you hate pickles."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do." He retorts with a frown, "I remember back when I had just gotten back from Afghanistan and I was obsessed Burger King. You ordered a double cheeseburger without pickles and you were pissed when you opened your burger and found extra pickles. You wouldn't even eat the burger because you swore that you could 'taste the pickle juice.'"

She frowns as she looks down at the pickle in her hand, her third so far. He was completely right, how could she forget that she hates pickles?

"Hmm, your right." She muses as her eyes drift to the jar. "I guess my taste buds are changing."

"I'm sure." Tony rolls his eyes.

Her eyes flash to him, "What?"

"Nothing," he answers taking another sip of water, and she comes to the conclusion that his genius mind is getting at something. "Did you get any sleep? You have been exhausted lately."

"Nah," she answers closing the jar to cut herself off. She moves to put the jar away, but he grabs it from her hands and puts it away for her.

He quickly returns to the bar, "So did that nausea wave ever go away? I remember you weren't feeling well before I left."

"Yeah I'm feeling better." She yawns and swipes his plastic bottle before he can take a swig. Just as she goes to take a sip she freezes, what he has been hinting at finally hits her with full force and she wants to slap herself for being so naïve.

"There it is." Tony smirks.

"Oh my God!" Pepper shrieks, her mind racing.

There is no possible way that this could be happening.

Nausea, cravings, and exhaustion—the answer is obvious. The word pregnant bounces around her brain like a ping pong ball and she feels as though she may faint.

"Damn Pickles," She growls.

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**I enjoyed writing this and I was eating pickles while I wrote it. **

**Like I said Tony may be AUish but I decided that I wanted to do something different and have Pepper freak and not Tony. Meh, I took a creative liberty. **

**Reviews are lovely.**


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